UBRI: a look into the future

[Guest]

All right folks, let's dive into #UBRI initiative and see what is it all about. I see a lot of ******** and idiotic comments passing by about this UBRI initative. Let's see what kind of jobs are going to be created. I'm going to expand this topic as I go (I just started to look into this out of curiosity)...

UBRI-numbering given below starts from the top-left corner and ends at the bottom-right corner following Ripple's academic partners shown at https://ubri.ripple.com/

UBRI#1: Australian National University (ANU) College of Law

https://law.anu.edu.au/news-and-events/news/anu-receives-us1m-study-blockchain-and-law-technology

The Australian National University has become the first in the country to secure US$1 million to research and create courses around the legal implications for the law profession and governments from the emerging technologies of blockchain, smart contracts, and digital payments.

Scott Chamberlain (https://twitter.com/scotty2ten and https://twitter.com/morley_alana/status/1098807708533178368), a Senior Lecturer in the ANU College of Law, has received the funds from US-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Ripple, as part of its US$50m University Blockchain Research Initiative.

“The internet has exploded the amount of interactions and information we can share with other people, but it didn’t explode trust,” Mr Chamberlain says. “That leads to all sorts of things like online identify theft and intellectual property infringements. “Part of what Ripple’s looking at is can blockchain add a value layer to that, so the Internet of Data matches with the Internet of Value. “We’re proud to be both the first Law faculty and the first Australian university involved in this exciting research initiative,”. “The legal implications for these emerging technologies are immense, and we are thrilled that our staff and students will be in the front row of researching what it all means for the legal profession and governments.” Mr Chamberlain and his research partners, starting with software developers, will study whether emerging financial technologies can help.

“I’m looking at what I call the ‘Lex Automagica Tech Stack’ – blockchain, plus digital assets, plus smart contracts, plus AI (Artificial Intelligence), plus AR and VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – that can power our societies like clockwork.”

“There’s a whole lot of things that need research, it’s not just blockchain but legal tech in general. The whole space is a Cambrian explosion of new and wonderful things to sink your teeth into.”

Mr Chamberlain plans to create two postgraduate Masters courses in first semester 2020, subject to approvals, that examine the technology proposals in theory and practice.

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UBRI#2: Delft University of Technology

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/delft-blockchain-lab/vacancies/vacancy/

By the way, you can still apply for these jobs!

PhD Design and Implement Security Protocols for Blockchains

Department/faculty: Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Level: University Graduate

Working hours: 38-40 hours weekly

Contract: 4 Years

Salary: 2222 - 2840 euros monthly (full-time basis)

Goals of this collaboration are to design and implement security protocols for blockchains as well as developing effective and efficient solutions for testing and verification. In the first phase of the collaboration, we are hiring two Ph.D. students, who will be daily supervised by experts in both Software Engineering and Distributed Systems.

The two PhD positions will focus on the following research areas:

1. AI-based Software Testing.

The development, maintenance, and testing of blockchains involve many activities that are complex, expensive and error-prone. In this project, we aim to automate testing activities by leveraging artificial intelligence algorithms (e.g., by using search-based and machine learning algorithms). The goal is, for example, to assess the implementation of the consensus algorithms or testing blockchain applications against security attacks (e.g., double-spending attacks).

Background: Software Testing, Optimization Search Algorithms, Blockchain (optional)

Supervisors: Annibale Panichella, Arie van Deursen

More information: apanichella.github.io, se.ewi.tudelft.nl/sbse.html 

2. Real-World Blockchain Scalability and Security.

Theoretical models and actual networks differ in a number of points. In this project, we aim to measure Ripple how is used in the wild. Based on these results, we want to develop more suitable algorithms. Potential examples include improved consensus algorithms, improved scalability, and designing privacy-preserving protocols.

Background: Distributed Systems, Network Security, Blockchain

Supervisors: Stefanie Roos, **** Epema

More information: www.tudelft.nl/delft-blockchain-lab ,https://ds..ewi.tudelft.nl/

While the two PhD positions focus on two different areas, the candidates will collaborate closely. Besides, we expect the candidates to spend some time working at Ripple offices for deploying the developed solutions.

Requirements

- An excellent master's degree (or equivalent) in computer science, with a strong interest in at least one of the following ares: Software Testing, Distributed Systems, Network Security, Optimization and Artificial Intelligence. Experience with Blockchain is not mandatory but it is highly beneficial

- Strong programming skills are required, preferably in C and/or C++

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UBRI#3: Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV)

https://portal.fgv.br/en

https://www.ripple.com/insights/on-campus-fundacao-getulio-vargas-is-training-brazils-next-gen-workforce-on-blockchain/

One of the most tangible effects of UBRI at FGV was a new Master’s Degree in Crypto Finance that Professor Rochman helped launch in 2017. The program is the first of its kind in Brazil. It emphasizes economics and finance and revolves around the core disciplines of math and statistics. It began with courses on pricing assets and derivatives and computer skills and has since expanded to include courses on crypto finance and crypto economics.

These newer courses cover blockchain structures, consensus, and both micro-and-macro-economics in relation to these new technologies. The crypto finance course is specific to cryptocurrencies and delves into how crypto is viewed by other industries, alt-coins, and even how to build a new cryptocurrency.

The program also features a course on cyber security. Professor Rochman says students in the course can learn about cryptographic security, various algorithms related to security, and how changes can impact end users or investors. Interestingly, he mentioned this course deals with physical security as well. For example, where to place computers, how to build and secure a data room, and other real-world challenges.

Students taking part in all these courses have access to a crypto finance lab where they program with bitcoin and use both bitcoin script language and python. They can also take electives that allow them to specialize in crypto subjects related to data science, AI, Internet of Things, and other similar economics or business topics. The goal being to foster an understanding of and interest in the application of blockchain and crypto to adjacent industries.

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UBRI#4: BerkleyHaas

https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/news-release/the-haas-school-of-business-at-the-university-of-california-berkeley-partners-with-ripple-to-accelerate-innovation-in-blockchain-cryptocurrency/

Berkeley Haas will receive a multi-year, multi-million-dollar gift from Ripple to build on the school’s leadership in advancing understanding of how these technologies are transforming multiple industries, and in educating leaders who will bring them to market. The school will develop a comprehensive program focused on blockchain and distributed systems, as well as cryptocurrency and digital payments.

Eric van Miltenburg, Ripple’s senior vice president of Global Operations, said the initiative will help meet the growing demand for talent, learning, research, and project-based experience in blockchain and fintech more broadly.

“Academia has traditionally been a critical driver of technical innovation. The University Blockchain Research Initiative is an acknowledgment of the vital importance of the unique role universities will play in advancing our understanding and application of cryptography and blockchain technology.  It also speaks to the reality that university graduates will fuel a continually evolving and maturing financial marketplace and workforce,”

https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/blockchain-in-bloom-new-initiative-expands-courses-research-grants/

Bosun Adebaki, MBA 19, will spend time this spring researching the merits of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), a form of digital money that’s being tested by governments and central banks worldwide. His goal is to determine how central banks can use digital currencies to become more competitive, flexible, and efficient.

Adebaki, a fellow with the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator (https://xcelerator.berkeley.edu/ and https://blockchain.berkeley.edu/), is among eight graduate students and seven faculty members from across UC Berkeley who received the first round of grants from the Berkeley Haas Blockchain Initiative, a new program funded by a grant from blockchain industry leader Ripple.

“It’s exciting to watch the Ripple UBRI Partnership gather momentum at Haas and across the Berkeley campus,” said Prof. Laura Tyson, faculty director of IBSI and former dean of the Haas School. “Individual companies and researchers can only accomplish so much. But by supporting a research network that spans across so many great universities and over five continents, Ripple is building a powerful program that could lead to important advances for not only the entire sector, but for the world.”

Fifteen research grants awarded

The first round of grants went to professors from Berkeley Engineering, the School of Information, and Haas, as well researchers from the Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity and the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. Haas Prof. Paul Gertler received funding for research focused on adoption of digital payment systems by small businesses in emerging markets, and Asst. Prof. Giovanni Compiani received a grant to study what drives demand for cryptocurrencies among both individual and institutional investors. Blockchain courses taught by Adam Sterling, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, and Ikhlaq Sidhu, chief scientist and faculty director of the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, also received grants.

Eight students from Berkeley Law, Berkeley Engineering, the School of Information, the Department of Economics, and Haas each received smaller grants that will allow them to complete research projects within a semester.

Haas students participating, in addition to Adebaki, include Kate Tomlinson, MBA 20, and a business consultant for Blockchain@Berkeley, who will be researching applications of blockchain within the energy sector. Her project will dive deeper into the specific challenges of financial reconciliation, hardware integration, and data sharing as they apply to the energy sector. Lauren Fu, MBA 19, will research ways to assign vehicle accident liability by collecting and storing accident data using blockchain—so that the data collected will be auditable and tamper-free.

She256, co-founded by Sara Reynolds, BS EECS 21 and a Blockchain@Berkeley consultant, also received a grant to continue to develop the reach of the organization, a movement to increase diversity and break down barriers to entry in the blockchain space.

 

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UBRI#5: University of Waterloo

https://uwaterloo.ca/blockchain-research/news/new-funding-available-grad-students-researching-blockchain

To help shape the future of blockchain technologies, a funding opportunity is available for master’s and doctoral candidates.

Waterloo Engineering is offering fellowships, valued at up to $50,000 for master’s and $120,000 for PhD students, to undertake research in the blockchain field.

Most of the funding for the fellowships is provided by Ripple, a San Francisco-based technology company that specializes in digital payments and blockchain.

Recipients of the fellowships will join Waterloo researchers and others to advance research and innovation in blockchain, cryptography and digital payment systems.

https://uwaterloo.ca/blockchain-research/researchers-and-areas-expertise

a wide spectrum of research in the following areas:

• Applications in Severless Cloud Computing
• Blockchain for Social Good
• Consensus Protocols
• Cryptography and Security
• Data Mining and Machine Learning
• Distributed Systems
• Scalability
• Smart Contracts
• Testing and Verification

https://uwaterloo.ca/graduate-studies-postdoctoral-affairs/awards/ripple-graduate-fellows

The deadline to apply for a blockchain fellowship is February 1, 2019, with an anticipated start date of September 2019.

Annual fellowships valued at $25,000 per year (for Master's students) and $30,000 per year (for Doctoral students) will be awarded to eligible graduate students registered full time in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Fellowships will be awarded on the basis of academic excellence (e.g., minimum of 80% cumulative average or in each of the last two full-time academic years) and through demonstrated interest in how the applicant has increased diversity in the subject area and related field of Blockchain and distributed systems, Cryptocurrency and digital payments, and Cryptography, particularly as it relates to these research areas. Preference will be given to female graduate students who meet the evaluation criteria and students with diverse experiences and backgrounds.

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UBRI#6: University of Oregon

https://business.uoregon.edu/news/leading-the-blockchain-revolution

Formed in April 2018, Oregon Blockchain (https://www.oregonblockchaingroup.com/) is a student-run initiative with a goal of campus wide reach for education and innovation in the blockchain space. The group hopes to recruit students from across different disciplines to think about how blockchain will impact business and have a greater understanding of blockchain generally.

In June, the University of Oregon announced it is one of 17 universities worldwide in the University Blockchain Research Initiative (https://around.uoregon.edu/content/ripple-partnership-puts-uo-elite-company-blockchain-research)—a multiyear, multi million-dollar program founded by Ripple to support academic research, technical development, and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments. Oregon Blockchain benefits from this gift through conference and curriculum rollout support.

Oregon Blockchain believes blockchain’s impact will be felt in six core areas: supply chain; financial markets; government; luxury assets, including sculptures, real estate, and collectible cars; advertising and journalism; and healthcare.

UO faculty members will develop curriculum and guide research, while Ripple will lend the support of its staff as well as technical resources to the UO and its other partner schools.

Ripple will also provide funds to support cybersecurity research for which faculty members from across campus can compete. Sventek can see natural collaborations between the new program and faculty in the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business and the School of Journalism and Communication, for example.

The technology essentially tracks the virtual fingerprint of everyone who touches a specific item, when that occurred and any actions they may have taken with it. This includes everything from transferring funds between two parties to complete the purchase of goods to tracking the path a box of tomatoes takes from a farmer’s field to your neighborhood grocery store.

“It may have come about because of bitcoin, but blockchain is becoming a very important technology not just for the financial industry but also as a way to track the movement of goods from one supplier to another,” Sventek said. “It’s a way to keep a supply chain secure through an entire distribution network.”

The new hire will be a member of the Center for Cyber Security and Privacy, the UO’s lauded interdisciplinary unit that is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. Sventek expects to launch the hiring process in the coming weeks.

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UBRI#7: Korea University

http://www.korea.ac.kr/user/boardList.do?boardId=365&siteId=en&page=1&id=en_060102000000&boardSeq=483066&command=albumView

Sang Jin Lee, dean of the Graduate School of Information Security, said, “The partnership with Ripple gives us access to its extensive database, and this will be essential in the development of practical blockchain security technology. In addition, it will help to meet the increasingly high demand for blockchain experts.”

The Blockchain Security Research Center of the Graduate School of Information Security at Korea University was established on May 1, 2018, for the purpose of conducting blockchain security research. Participating members include Dean Sang Jin Lee, Professor Ik Rae Jeong (https://koreauniv.pure.elsevier.com/en/persons/ik-rae-jeong/publications/ and https://scholar.google.co.kr/citations?hl=ko&user=cMn-vC0AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate, and Professor Ji Won Yoon (https://koreauniv.pure.elsevier.com/en/persons/ji-won-yoon/publications/ and  https://sites.google.com/site/securesiplab/members-1/professors and https://sites.google.com/site/securesiplab/projects

Ji Won Yoon / Current Projects

With fundings

2017.4~2020.12

Research on how to make homomorphic encryption be practical!

2017.12~2023.11 

Research on statistical side channel analysis to find hidden keys in crypto systems.

2018.3~2020.12

Research on electromagnetic signal analysis for IoT security

Voice presentation attack detection and authentication accuracy enhancements (Samsung Research), 2019.01. ~ 2019.12.

Ik Rae Jeong/Research Field (http://pet.korea.ac.kr/#)

1 Block Chain Technology and Security

2 Identity-based Lightweight Authentication and Key Exchange Protocol Analysis

3 Biometric Security

4 Lattice based Cryptography

5 Cloud Security

6 Privacy-Preserving Data Mining(PPDM)

7 Data Base Security

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UBRI#8: The University of Texas at Austin / McCombs School of Business

https://news.utexas.edu/2018/06/04/mccombs-school-part-of-50m-blockchain-innovation-program/

Ripple’s gift is a validation of our leadership in transformative technology innovation. It will enable us to grapple with some of the most pressing issues our rapidly evolving economic world has to offer.”

In addition to financial resources, Ripple has also committed to providing McCombs with strategic guidance and technical resources as needed.

“Our support of McCombs is an acknowledgment of the important role the school has the potential to play in advancing our understanding and application of cryptography and blockchain technology. Much of the enthusiasm and activity to date around blockchain is disconnected from real use cases that result in clear customer benefits,”. “While Ripple won’t dictate research parameters, we are excited to play a role in helping to support projects that explore increasingly useful applications of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.”

RIPPLE CTO DAVID SCHWARTZ VISITS CAMPUS (MARCH 14, 2019)

https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/centers/blockchain/conference (video link to youtube, see below)

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40UTexasMcCombs%20schwartz&src=typd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=OWyQc0vSY6o (51 minute video, check it out!)

Ripple CTO David Schwartz visited campus to discuss blockchain research with both faculty and students. During his stay, he was interviewed by McCombs faculty member Tej Anand and shared not only his personal journey to blockchain, but also his excitement about the blockchain space in general.

https://www.ripple.com/insights/on-campus-professor-cesare-fracassi-on-university-of-texas-austins-expanding-blockchain-initiative/ (GOOD ARTICLE, worth your time…)

Professor Cesare Fracassi, the director of this initiative at the University’s new Center for Analytics and Transformational Technologies, the ultimate goal is to leverage UBRI to accelerate what he sees as lagging understanding of blockchain in academia. He believes students will be best set up to advance blockchain innovation after graduation.

In recent years, he has observed a growing interest amongst students in fintech, and especially blockchain, as evidenced by their eager participation in related coursework and the founding of a graduate blockchain society.

This unique combination of existing blockchain coursework, dynamic leadership and student engagement make UT Austin ripe for further blockchain exploration, and a perfect home for UBRI.

At the Center and within his courses, Professor Fracassi touches on three main topics: machine learning and AI, Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain. He pointed out that each of these technologies is at a different stage of development within industry, with blockchain being earliest in its adoption and in a proof-of-concept phase.

UBRI program outcomes at UT Austin should be to advance blockchain beyond this initial phase by helping students learn about the underlying technology and its potential applications in the real world — so they can better separate the hype from the reality. He says that as academics, they do not have businesses at stake and so can cast a more critical eye on the space.

A subject like blockchain spans multiple topics such as science, engineering and law, while also having application in distinct industries such as finance, identity and healthcare. Its study allows the University to provide students with exposure to a variety of colleges within UT Austin.

The addition of funds through UBRI has allowed Professor Fracassi and the Center to expand the range of students taking this blockchain-related coursework. This fall, the university expanded course offerings to include MBA, graduate level business analytics and computer science, and undergrad students. He expects about 200 students enrolling in these classes in the spring semester.

The MBA, CompSci and undergrad courses cover much of the same ground, but each group has distinct needs and interests. For example, business students are more interested in the applications of blockchain, while computer science students are more focused on the technical coding elements.

Beyond just offering these new classes, UBRI funds will allow for a new fintech-focused track, the addition of more faculty to focus on the topic, and more professional development and subject matter expertise among existing faculty. All of this is geared to funding three UBRI program goals: support for research, support for teaching, and outreach to the community in Austin and Texas more broadly.

UBRI will also allow Professor Fracassi to lead more university-wide research into blockchain. He is currently spearheading an effort to review proposals from students and faculty across campus that are interested in receiving funds for blockchain research projects. He is enthusiastic about UBRI because it allows UT Austin to jumpstart their program and to work in tandem with other universities in the UBRI program.

Ultimately, he hopes to have the Center operational and research projects funded within the next six months. By year two or three, he envisions having fully embedded blockchain into the University and its coursework as machine learning is now. He acknowledges that blockchain remains niche today, but his goal is to make it core to the University — in a way that reflects its reach and use in the real world.

https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Centers/Blockchain

The Blockchain Initiative at Texas McCombs has three main goals: (i) to support faculty and graduate students research on blockchain across colleges at the University of Texas at Austin; (ii) to teach students the main concepts related to blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments; (iii) to be the hub of knowledge for external relations with industry practitioners, policymakers, and media.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/13/rising-profile-blockchain-academe

Even as private industry is increasingly supporting blockchain research, very little government funding is being made available, said Cesare Fracassi, associate professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

Many of the companies providing financial support are small start-ups, but more established blockchain companies such as Ripple are starting to step up.

Fracassi called this a “big deal” and noted that companies don’t often hand out unrestricted gifts in underfunded research areas. The money will allow Fracassi and colleagues to hire additional staff and “jump-start” blockchain-related research. A call for proposals will open this fall.

Because blockchain was developed by industry and not in academia, university researchers have been “struggling to catch up,” said Fracassi. Blockchain technology has been around for almost a decade, but it’s only in the last couple of years that universities have begun researching it. Now academics can play an important role in developing blockchain technology, he said.

“Blockchain was discovered and developed by practitioners who focus on the short-term business applications, but academics have the luxury of thinking more long term,” he said.

Bringing together academics from multiple disciplines can help develop new ways of thinking about blockchain technology, Fracassi said. And because many people singing the praises of blockchain are invested in it succeeding, academics can bring more objectivity to the research, he said.

“We can treat it as a scientific experiment and figure out if it’s a good technology or not,” he said.

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UBRI#9: CSAIL @ MIT

https://cap.csail.mit.edu/index.php/members/initiatives/fintechcsail (Ripple mentioned as one of the initiative members at the end of this site)

FinTech@CSAIL brings together industry, thought leaders, innovators, academics, disruptive technology development, and startup companies that are reinventing global financial services.

Through FINTECH@CSAIL, we work closely with industry partners in leveraging innovation from cutting edge research to develop the next generation of impactful technologies that will open up new business models, broaden access, gain new data insights, and improve security.

Our research will focus on several key areas across CSAIL:

• Advanced Data Analytics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cybersecurity/Secure Computation
• Financial Policy
• Machine Learning/Pattern Recognition
• Natural Language Processing (NLP)/Speech Recognition/Conversational Engines
• Privacy/Anonymity
• Replacement Technologies and Legacy Systems
• Risk Management
• Robotics
• Trusted Shared Public Ledger Systems

This breadth of research uniquely positions CSAIL to address a wide variety of challenges in the space. FinTech@CSAIL will include the world-class faculty of MIT CSAIL, who have pioneered the fields of secure computation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and risk management. The goal is to advance the state-of-the-art in collaboration with select industry partners to address the hardest problems facing the finance industry today.

http://web.mit.edu/webcast/csail/fintech/ (July 2018)

10:30am Fintech@CSAIL Members Talks, Ripple – Evan "ALL THE MONEY" Schwartz, Engineer

(the video seems to be removed on this site but @BankXRP got us covered, so here you go folks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt-9ZQtyIec)

https://cap.csail.mit.edu/index.php/members/jobs

CSAIL Alliance members may post full-time, part-time, or internship positions available to CSAIL students

I don’t see anything related to Ripple (maybe the position is already filled in by now, only open positions are shown) but it’s nice to see what “others” like CitiGroup are looking for when recruiting ;).

I would encourage Ripple to do their next “ON CAMPUS” series here! Why? Because MIT rocks and because there’s actually very little info regarding the UBRI initiative @ MIT site. No announcement on their website, nothing major when searching for ripple or ubri. “FinTech” search term finally revealed something. It’s like there’s some kind of secrecy about all this. You really have to dig deep to find anything on MIT and CSAIL website…Team Ripple, are you listening? Off we go to MIT, not even asking, just telling you!

https://www.ripple.com/insights/ripple-introduces-the-university-blockchain-research-initiative/

As part of UBRI, Ripple is also participating in MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab’s new FinTech initiative made up of a nearly a dozen companies across the financial services industry to work with groups of CSAIL’s 116+ researchers on topics like blockchain, cryptocurrencies, cybersecurity and global payments.

 

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UBRI#10: CITP at Princeton University

https://citp.princeton.edu/citp-joins-ripples-university-research-collaboration-to-accelerate-innovation-in-blockchain-cryptocurrency/

….commitment from Ripple to support research and fund graduate fellowships, postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars. In addition to financial resources, Ripple has also committed to collaborating with university partners by providing strategic guidance and technical resources as needed.

CITP and Ripple anticipate that, in keeping with CITP’s interdisciplinary nature, this initiative will engage students and faculty from a wide range of academic fields and backgrounds to produce interesting research and technical developments. In addition, the company and CITP hope the increase in knowledge sharing through this collaboration will fuel innovation and deepen understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies and their uses in the real world.

https://citp.princeton.edu/publications/cryptocurrencies/

Just to give you an idea what they were/are researching…

https://www.ripple.com/insights/ripple-introduces-the-university-blockchain-research-initiative/

For example, as the regulatory conversation continues to evolve in the public sector, the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) at Princeton University is creating an UBRI program that will study the policy impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the U.S. and around the world.

 

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UBRI#11: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / Kenan-Flagler Business School

https://college.unc.edu/2018/06/blockchain/ and https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/news/unc-kenan-flagler-selected-to-be-part-of-50-million-blockchain-research-initiative-by-ripple/

“UNC Kenan-Flagler and the Kenan Institute are uniquely qualified to be part of this global initiative,” said Greg Brown, professor of finance and director of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC Kenan-Flagler. Brown will co-lead the initiative with Ghysels. “Our research focus has always been around real-use cases that result in clear benefits to businesses and society, particularly with respect to cutting-edge technologies. This partnership with Ripple to discover useful applications of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is a logical extension of our efforts.”

The UNC professors ( Greg Brown (https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/faculty/directory/gregory-brown/) and Eric Ghysels (http://eghysels.web.unc.edu/) will continue to build a comprehensive program focusing on the role of new technologies, specifically blockchain, cryptocurrency and cybersecurity, to transform finance and economics, computer science and related fields. By doing so, UNC Kenan-Flagler will help prepare the next generation of business leaders, entrepreneurs, computer scientists and other professionals who will develop and apply the technologies and business practices.

https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/recruiters-companies/

The school will utilize this support from Ripple for curriculum development, research and project-based work, as well as entrepreneurship-related topics. The UNC Kenan-Flagler Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise also recently launched Rethinc Labs (https://kenaninstitute.unc.edu/rethinc/) in conjunction with these efforts. Rethinc Labs will focus on the strategic implementation of machine learning to real-world business needs.

https://kenaninstitute.unc.edu/rethinc/ml/index.php/fintech/ (team ripple/binance was visiting…)

24 January 2019, Catherine Coley (hello Binance, when gateway ;)?), Head of XRP Institutional Liquidity, Ripple (https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/blog/index.php/future-of-fintech-symposium-tackles-blockchain-cryptocurrency/)

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UBRI#12: The University of Pennsylvania PENN/ Wharton School + Penn engineering

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/cryptocurrency-collaboration

The two schools (https://www.seas.upenn.edu/ and https://www.wharton.upenn.edu/) have launched The Ripple Project at Penn, funded by Ripple, the blockchain-based global payment company. Ripple will finance a fellowship and research projects as part of its University Blockchain Research Initiative, which harnesses the education, research, and innovative tools that universities offer and apply them to blockchain technology and applications.

With a newly established Wharton-Engineering dual-degree program, the Ripple Fellowship will support select MBA-MS candidates to work on blockchain or cryptocurrency projects.

“Blockchain is a major point of intersection between business and engineering,” says Kevin Werbach, associate professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton. “We plan to research a broad range of topics in in this field, ranging from privacy to smart contract design to regulatory questions to creating trust in decentralized environments.”

https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/wharton-engineering-dual-degree-program/

The Ripple Fellowship:

this term gift was established to support students in the Wharton/Engineering dual-degree program, with a preference given to those interested in block-chain and cryptocurrency and special consideration given to women and underrepresented minorities. This fellowship is available to up to four students per year.

https://www.ripple.com/insights/author-kevin-werbach-previews-new-book-the-blockchain-and-the-new-architecture-of-trust/

Team Ripple: Tell us more about your work at Wharton, one of the schools participating in Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI). How has your role as a professor informed your work as an author?

Werbach: I study how technology impacts business, law, and society. Most professors focus on a narrow area, but I’ve always had an interdisciplinary interest in emerging trends. So I’ve done research (and built courses) on Internet and telecommunications policy, gamification, law and ethics of big data, and now blockchain. I view teaching as a form of learning, and vice-versa. It takes discipline to synthesize a new area, identify the important parts, and develop frameworks to convey them. You’re basically creating a field out of a collection of data points. So, researching blockchain and cryptocurrencies for my academic writing, developing The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust, and creating courses were all part of the same process.

Team Ripple: What interests your students about blockchain and digital asset technology?

Werbach: I teach undergraduate and MBA business students, as well as some students from elsewhere in the university (such as engineers). Many are interested in gaining job skills that will provide a competitive advantage in building their careers. Some have backgrounds in specific areas like finance or healthcare, where they can see opportunities for blockchain-based solutions. Some have been trading cryptocurrencies for investment purposes, and want to see the bigger picture. Many are just curious about an area they read about a lot in the media but don’t fully understand. They want to dig in and learn what’s real in the space.

https://giving.wharton.upenn.edu/penn-launches-strategic-collaboration-with-ripple-to-accelerate-innovation-in-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency/

Ripple’s financial donation to the University will support cross-disciplinary faculty research, financial aid for graduate students, and a broad range of educational programs. The Ripple Project will enable faculty research at both Wharton and Penn Engineering to unlock the full potential of blockchain to inform the creation of truly valuable solutions in the marketplace.

“Here at Penn, there is tremendous excitement and initiative around blockchain among faculty and students,” said Vijay Kumar, the Nemirovsky Family Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. “By collaborating with Ripple, we will answer crucial questions about blockchain’s capabilities, applications, and security, and we will develop a deeper understanding of the many emerging protocols built over blockchain. This level of knowledge is key to the technology’s future success.”

“Blockchain represents the fusion of technology and finance spanning schools and disciplines well beyond Wharton” said Geoffrey Garrett, Dean of the Wharton School. “The Ripple Project will transform the way our students and faculty look at blockchain and its potential to change the world. We are thrilled to welcome Ripple’s collaboration as we prepare future leaders who will shape the future of how this dynamic technology is developed to transform fields as diverse as finance, logistics, and healthcare.”

To harness the initiative of students, the insights of new research, and the power of the Penn network in this field, the Ripple Project will also provide learning opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom. Ripple will support student-organized events, such as the Penn Blockchain Conference which brings together the Penn and Philadelphia blockchain communities; the development of new curricular offerings that bridge business and technology; and events, workshops, and lectures that promote engagement between industry, students, and faculty.

Team Ripple @ PENN…

https://twitter.com/Ripple/status/1081305279638040576 (Ripple’s Craig DeWitt, January 2019).

https://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/2018/ripple-asheesh-birla/ (podcast, August 2018)

http://pennblockchain.com/conference-2019 ; April 2019, Marjan Delatinne, Global Head of Banking, Ripple

 

https://www.ripple.com/insights/ripple-introduces-the-university-blockchain-research-initiative/

At The University of Pennsylvania, UBRI is supporting select MBA-MS candidates each year in a newly established Wharton-Engineering dual-degree program. This funding aims to prioritize students working on blockchain or cryptocurrency.

 

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UBRI#13: University College London (UCL)

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/campaign/news/2018/jun/ucl-partners-ripple-accelerate-innovation-blockchain-cryptocurrency

Research will focus on three main streams including: technological innovation of distributed ledger technologies, business applications and socio-economic risks, legal and regulatory implications of distributed ledger technologies.

UCL is the only UK university involved in the program of 12 institutions including MIT, Princeton and Berkeley. Established in 2016, UCL CBT (http://blockchain.cs.ucl.ac.uk/) is the largest centre on blockchain technologies in the world which counts more than one hundred research associates.

http://blockchain.cs.ucl.ac.uk/industry-engagement/ (Ripple is their strategic partner)

UCL CBT is a multilateral innovation platform, designed around industry and policymakers’ needs. Our academic expertise allows us to produce cutting-edge Blockchain solutions for industry, start-ups and regulators across a variety of sectors. Key services include project-based consulting, extensive database sharing and training programs for professionals.

https://electiconsulting.com/fintech-summer-school-limassol-cyprus/

FinTech Summer School brings the world-renowned expertise of the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies (UCL CBT), together with Electi Academy to present some of the the foremost thinkers in FinTech technologies to equip you with the INSIGHT, NETWORK and the TOOLs to guide your organisation on how to deal with disruptive emergent technologies.

This course is designed to provide you with a framework for evaluating blockchains, both through use of technology and business applications and from a legal and regulatory perspective.

Day 1 (Blockchain/DLTs and FinTech Applications): Learn from the experts regarding different DLT frameworks (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, Ripple, Stellar), low-level architecture of a Blockchain and its cryptographic related parts and discuss legal and regulatory aspects and challenges behind Blockchain, DLTs and Smart-Contracts. In addition, discuss how to use tokenisation as an alternative method for financing and discuss different methods of crowdfunding such as ICO, IEO, STO etc.

 

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UBRI#14: University of Luxembourg

https://www.luxembourgforfinance.com/news/ripple-partners-with-university-of-luxembourg-for-blockchain-research-initiative/

will determine their own research topics and priority areas of focus, while also partnering with Ripple to:

• Collaborate on research and technical development that will stimulate widespread understanding and innovation in blockchain.
• Create new curriculum to meet high student demand for learning about blockchain, cryptocurrency and other FinTech topics.
• Stimulate ideas and dialogue among students, faculty, technologists and business leaders on topics of shared interest.

In Europe, the University of Luxembourg and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands are building a new blockchain research program inside their Departments of Computer Science and Engineering with the help of UBRI.

https://wwwen.uni.lu/university/news/latest_news/university_joins_ripple_blockchain_research_on_micropayments (April 2019, a gold mine of info)

Ripple’s donation will support research to develop the network communications necessary for micropayments, which promise to change the way we consume content on the Internet.

“Users currently pay for web content either through subscriptions or with their data, through exposure to advertising,” says Prof. Radu State, who is leading the research at the University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security Reliability and Trust (SnT) (https://wwwen.uni.lu/snt). “There’s currently no cost effective, practical way for people to pay per second to listen to music, access quality journalism or watch a film. But micropayments will allow us to pay as we consume, using tiny fractions of a cent that don’t impact our budget.”

Prof. State and his team intend to make such micropayments a reality through Interledger, an open suite of protocols for sending money directly over the Internet, regardless of currency. Interledger uses a network of “connectors” – each making exchanges in at least two crypto or fiat currencies – to allow people to route money seamlessly across the Internet and across financial barriers.

For the money to find the cheapest route from source to destination, however, thousands of connectors will need to exchange continuous information about their exchange fees and liquidity. One of SnT’s contributions will be to define how connectors exchange this information dynamically, allowing millions of payments per second to take the cheapest route through the network. “Connectors will make money by playing on exchange rates, and since cryptocurrencies are highly volatile we need to ensure that the network copes with this inherent instability,” says State.

The possibility of sending money as easily as we send data has major implications for the way we pay for content on the Internet. “With the Internet, we send data to one another regardless of whether we are on wifi, broadband or DSL,” says Jean-Louis Schiltz, Honorary Professor at SnT. “With the support of Ripple, SnT’s aim is to put the network communications in place to achieve the same thing with money, whether we work in euros, dollars or one of the hundreds of cryptocurrencies.”

Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance, comments: “In a world in which an ever increasing share of content consumption takes place online, SnT’s project on micropayments, based on Ripple’s Interledger technology, has the potential to significantly improve the way users pay for digital and online content. With the SnT celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year, this new project is yet more proof of the interdisciplinary centre’s important role in Luxembourg’s innovation ecosystem, including in the area of financial services.”

“The team at the University of Luxembourg is working on core research topics, such as optimising Interledger routing and the design of Interledger connectors, to enable individuals to send payments over the Internet,“ said Evan Swartz, Co-Inventor of the Interledger Protocol and Lead Engineer at Xpring. “They have a unique combination of experience in traditional computer networking and blockchain technologies, and I’m excited to get more networking experts to work on Interledger.”

“We are honored to partner with the University of Luxembourg as they are working to make micropayments a reality,” said Eric van Miltenburg, SVP of Global Operations at Ripple. 

https://wwwen.uni.lu/snt/partnership_program (Ripple = research partner)

SnT is committed to fostering the production of innovative ideas, increasing the depth and breadth of the competence of, and facilitating research in collaboration with, established partners as well as new start-ups in the ICT industry.

Through the partnership program, partners contribute to and influence the development of SnT at all levels. The partners have representation on the SnT Board where the centre's strategy is developed. The Industrial Advisory Board supports the strategy and operations of SnT. Research is conducted jointly in partnered projects where SnT and partners contribute know-how and resources to achieve common goals.

The partnership program also allows research activity to be leveraged with public research funding through the European Framework programmes, European Space Agency, and the National Research Funding Agency (FNR). Industrial PhD student projects are an attractive form of collaboration with SnT. Together with a partner, a PhD student project is defined (3+1 years duration) which is of interest to the partner and scientifically appropriate for a thesis. Together, a suitable student is recruited and the project is often carried out both at the partner premises and at SnT.

https://wwwen.uni.lu/snt/research/cryptolux

CryptoLUX is a cryptology research group headed by Prof. Alex Biryukov (https://cryptolux.org/index.php/Alex_Biryukov). The CryptoLUX group forms part of the Laboratory of Algorithmics, Cryptology and Security (LACS) (http://lacs.uni.lu/).

The mission of the CryptoLUX group is to define, conduct, and disseminate leading-edge research in cryptology (and closely related fields), and to pass the knowledge gained from research on to students and industry partners. CryptoLUX is one of the few academic research teams worldwide that possesses expertise across the full spectrum of cryptology, ranging from theoretical foundations to implementation aspects and applications. Our mission and objectives are devised in accordance with the three main goals of the University of Luxembourg, which are teaching, research and knowledge transfer at the highest international level. Members of CryptoLUX collaborate with top research groups around the world and participate in activities of ECRYPT (http://www.ecrypt.eu.org/), the European network of excellence in cryptology. Our current research projects cover a wide variety of topics including algorithm design (block ciphers, hash functions, etc.), cryptanalysis, communication security and anonymity, efficient implementations, side-channel attacks, and reverse engineering.

Emerging information and communication technologies, such as cloud computing or the Internet of things, pose a number of unique challenges related to the design and implementation of cryptographic primitives, which has initiated a large of body of research in these areas. Nonetheless, the number of cryptanalytic attacks (both traditional ones as well as side-channel attacks) is steadily increasing, and many of these attacks have led to devastating security breaches with fatal consequences. We envision CryptoLUX to be in the forefront of an international research community that tackles these challenges and develops innovative solutions for complex security problems based on a solid cryptographic foundation. To achieve this, we strive for a greater understanding of how cryptosystems get broken (or otherwise fail) in the real world, how they can be designed and implemented to better resist attacks, and how they should be used to build secure systems and networks.

 

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UBRI#15: University of Nicosia (UNIC) in Cyprus 

https://www.unic.ac.cy/ripple-and-university-of-nicosia-enter-into-multi-year-agreement-to-support-blockchain-research/

Ripple will be supporting three specific initiatives at UNIC: (1) Joining as founding corporate member of UNIC’s Institute For the Future (IFF) (https://www.unic.ac.cy/iff/), to support its groundbreaking work in blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies; (2) Funding the Ripple Graduate Fellowship at UNIC, to fund two new post-doc positions for the next three years, and; (3) Funding the Ripple Scholar Scheme at UNIC, offering an annual full scholarship for UNIC’s MSc in Digital Currency for the next five years. 

“UNIC has been at the forefront of teaching and research in the fields of cryptocurrency and blockchain since 2013, with a number of firsts in academia”, remarked Antonis Polemitis, CEO of the University of Nicosia. UNIC was the first university in the world to develop a cryptocurrency course (a MOOC followed by nearly 30,000 students to-date), as well as a full academic programme in the field (MSc in Digital Currencies). UNIC was also the first university in the world to publish academic certificates and diplomas to the blockchain, while it boasts one of the largest teams in academia working on blockchain and cryptocurrency research, development and teaching.

The UNIC-Ripple agreement will be effective as of the academic year 2018-2019.

 

https://twitter.com/nbougalis/status/1003701980244480000

Ripple's Nik Bougalis seemed excited on twitter (Cyprus roots?) 

 

https://twitter.com/MScDigital/status/1069539358250856449

On 27/11/18 the @Uni_of_Nicosia became the first university in Cyprus & the Mediterranean region to be added to Ripple's XRP ledger ecosystem under the trusted Unique Node List(UNL). This is another milestone that the University achieves as a contributor to the rise of Blockchain.

 

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UBRI#16: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT)

https://www.ripple.com/insights/on-campus-iit-bombay-blockchain-applications/ (nice article!)

Professor R.K. Shyamasundar says the study of blockchain will help nurture a coming generation of entrepreneurs comfortable with building applications at scale and across industries. As part of our discussion on IIT Bombay and its participation in Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), he gave us a peek into the university’s work with a Ripple validator, blockchain related programs already underway on campus, and explained why the study of blockchain is so important to the future of business and daily life in the region.

He believes that this will eventually result in a broad spectrum of blockchain applications that can govern several aspects of society with transparency, provenance and integrity. But in order for these applications to have real-world utility and acceptance, he says they must feature high levels of scalability and performance.

He sees his job at IIT Bombay as instructing the coming generation of entrepreneurs on how to build these applications, and how to apply those aspects of scale and performance into new and broader distributed ledger applications beyond fintech. He believes a blockchain education centered around hands-on exposure to the technology will produce new research opportunities and innovative new applications.

.... way to better integrate the study of blockchain across disciplines, provide students with exposure to live projects like running a validator and more effectively train the next generation of blockchain entrepreneurs.

he cited the university’s Centre of Excellence. It serves as a natural home for UBRI at IIT Bombay because it’s already an inter-disciplinary arrangement bringing together faculty and curriculum from the schools of Management, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering. He said also that the Centres for Economic Policy and the Centre for Alternative Technologies for Rural Applications have begun to show interest in using UBRI to explore blockchain for their own specific use cases.

 In February, they hosted 200 participants from academia, industry and government for a workshop on Blockchain, distributed ledger technologies and related applications.

 this workshop and others like it are an output of an active cybersecurity student club that meets regularly and is fond of having undergrads challenge seniors on their research and findings in order to promote group learning.

IIT Bombay operates their own XRP validator on campus. He says this is an effective way to expose the students to blockchain principals in practice and show them the design behind Ripple’s consensus algorithm.

In total, there are 11 people—from both the faculty and student communities—working on the validator. Live for the past three months, Professor Shyamasundar said it has produced an enormous amount of data that is warehoused and currently being used to set up a full-history server at the university. He mentioned that some of his students have been inspired by the sheer amount of resulting data to develop new projects by applying artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning.

Further, he thinks the data generated from this validator can lead in several new research directions, such as the privacy of transactions, AI or machine learning-based predictions about the XRP Ledger, and applications in healthcare or land management. He even mentioned that three undergraduate students are actively working in these areas.

For Ripple specifically, he is interested to learn whether it’s possible to predict “trust paths” for transaction initiators and whether it’s possible under concurrent operations to scale up without deadlocking. He also said his work aims to achieve privacy by appropriate scheduling, wherein AI and machine learning techniques help identify a set of timed transactions that deplete some of the nodes on the path for a target.

Beyond the many blockchain-related projects already underway at IIT Bombay, Professor Shyamasundar mentioned a near-term effort to explore the capabilities of digital asset transfer using XRP. In the longer-term, he would like to cement UBRI-funded research capabilities as critical for local fintech and government partners.

He understands that the world is becoming more interdependent, with global workflows and supply chains creating an opening for distributed ledger technologies to be utilized for time and process improvements. By creating partnerships with private and government entities, he hopes to build a natural path for IIT Bombay students to become entrepreneurs.

This use of data and research at IIT Bombay as preparation for the real world is timely for Professors Shyamasundar. He sees the proliferation of information systems in our daily lives, augmented by the use of mobile devices, as creating an enormous data ecosystem that can be monetized in new ways and lead to entirely new business models.

But he also worries this intrusive data gathering and the race to monetize it is making people very anxious and skeptical of the cost versus benefit of sharing their own data. He believes that blockchain can help balance the scales and bring some symmetry to the collection and use of data. He sees this requiring blockchain variants far beyond today’s cryptocurrency applications that are custom-tailored to the task.

http://iitb.ac.in/story/iit-b-partners-ripple

The MoU was signed by Prof. Devang V. Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay and Mr. Navin Gupta, Managing Director, Ripple. 

Speaking about the relevance of the association, Prof. Khakhar, said, “This is a partnership between a financial technology company and an academic institution, to promote greater understanding and utilization of blockchain, cryptocurrency, cryptography and related topics of mutual interest, and to foster a widespread adoption and innovation in these fields globally. The partnership will enable our faculty and students with novel opportunities for research and technology development in blockchain and cryptocurrency which will add value to the global blockchain ecosystem as well as emerging fields like FinTech. We look forward to the fruits of the collaboration in terms of the advancement of high quality research and development”.

http://www.iitb.ac.in/alumni/en/newsletter-article/2018-11/center-excellence-blockchain-technologies

As of now, the following faculty will be driving the R & D Efforts: Prof RK Shyamasundar ( CSE), Prof. G. Siva Kumar (CSE), Prof. Manoj Prabhakaran (CSE), Prof. Virendra Singh ( EE), Prof. Sarthak Gaurav (SJSOM),  Prof. Vinay Riberio (CSE), and Dr. Vishwas Patil (CSE).

Some of the topics of interest of the faculty include: theoretical foundations on scalability & performance tradeoffs, concurrent operations, permissioned ledgers and DLTs., robust smart contracts, security, privacy, anonymity, Crypto-currency &crypto-assets, DLT applications to land management, healthcare, IoT security etc. Interactions with the Ripple is going in establishing a Ripple Validator at IIT Bombay. Efforts are on to get excellent PhD students, interns and establish concrete interactions with FinTech efforts in India as well as institutions working on payment sytems and banking technologies.

A workshop (https://isrdc.iitb.ac.in/blockchain/workshops/2019-iitb/) on applications of DLTs is planned for 4-5 Feb 2019 at IIT Bombay followed by a one day meeting at IDRBT, Hyderabad, for which participation from CSIRO (a leading Institute from  Australia working on applications of Blockchain) has been confirmed. We expect participation from academia and industry for this workshop.

https://isrdc.iitb.ac.in/blockchain/coe (Center of Excellence for Blockchain Research)

The Center of Excellence for Blockchain Technologies at IIT-Bombay is established in collaboration with Ripple.

The collaboration of IIT Bombay with Ripple provides us with novel opportunities enabling the testing and deployment of applications, and deliberation on future of finance. Broadly, it has the following synergy between ISRDC and Ripple:

• Create an excellent scientific, industrial, and innovative business climate in a very topical area of national and international significance.
• Attract students to do research in the frontier areas with practical applications.
• Cultivate an ecosystem of R&D in FinTech at IIT Bombay and provide a good attraction for industry and business houses to the Research Park at IIT Bombay.
• Enable concrete networking with the top institutions (like Stanford, MIT, et al), where other CoEs with Ripple's collaboration are established.
• Synergizing the on-campus expertise on blockchain technologies from the Departments of CSE, EE, and the SJM School of Management.

The center maintains a validator node on Ripple Network. https://www.insightiitb.org/ripple-in-the-works/ 

https://isrdc.iitb.ac.in/blockchain/coe/areas.html

• Crypto-currency, crypto-assets
• Smart contracts testing, verification
• Consensus protocols
• Permissioned ledgers, DLTs
• Theoretical results
• Applications and case studies
• Security, privacy, anonymity
• Scalability, efficiency trade-offs

https://isrdc.iitb.ac.in/blockchain/coe/openings.html

Applications for TWO PhD Fellowships, instituted under the BCoE at IIT Bombay, are sought for research in areas like foundations of distributed systems, scalability of distributed ledger applications, cryptocurrencies, as well as various challenging applications in banking, healthcare, transport, etc. Prospective PhD candidates should have a strong background in Computer Science (a master or bachelor); and interest in at least one of the following areas:

• security & privacy
• applied cryptography
• distributed systems
• economics

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UBRI#17: International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/agency-wire/11176-iiit-hyderabad-to-partner-ripples-university-blockchain-research-initiative

International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad) is one of two from India . Prof P J Narayanan, Director, IIIT-Hyderabad said, "It's gratifying to see IIIT-H's research work being recognized through the UBRI, alongside some of the best universities in the world. We have always valued theoretical and applied research as well as industry connect from the very beginning. This program enables both and we are looking forward to contributing to the blockchain area."

The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) is an autonomous research university founded in 1998 that focuses on the core areas of Information Technology, such as Computer Science, Electronics and Communications, and their applications in other domains through inter-disciplinary research with great social impact.

Some of its research domains include Visual Information Technologies, Human Language Technologies, Data Engineering, VLSI and Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture, Wireless Communications, Algorithms and Information Security, Robotics, Building Science, Earthquake Engineering, Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics, IT in Agriculture and e-Governance.

Not much to be found, looks like another good candidate for the "on campus" series to follow up on. I'm assuming that they'll be collaborating with IIT at Bombay...

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UBRI#18: Carnegie Mellon University

https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2019/march/ripple-blockchain-partnership.html (March 2019)

"This partnership with Ripple will take full advantage of CMU's culture of interdisciplinary innovation and our university-wide focus on issues at the intersection of technology and policy," said Ramayya Krishnan, dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy

The new program will help train and shape the next generation of business, public sector and nonprofit leaders; computer scientists; entrepreneurs; and other professionals to develop and apply these technologies and business practices for current and future use. The interdisciplinary work done by CMU on this initiative will leverage the expertise of CyLab, Carnegie Mellon's Security and Privacy Institute. (https://www.cylab.cmu.edu/)

"The work that comes from this partnership will advance learning, pioneer innovation and catalyze thought leadership on blockchain, cryptocurrency, cybersecurity and other critical areas," said Param Singh, Carnegie Bosch Chair, Director of PNC Center for Financial Services Innovation and associate professor of business technologies at CMU. 

In addition to pursuing groundbreaking research and technical innovation, several partners will be hosting events to discuss topics ranging from blockchain to cryptography and cybersecurity to regulatory issues. Ripple's thrilled to support and participate in these vital conferences and workshops."

 

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UBRI#19: Cornell Computer and Information Science (CIS)

https://cis.cornell.edu/cis-partners-ripple-accelerate-innovation-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency

Cornell CS Professor Andrew Myers, the faculty member supervising the project, said: “We are delighted to have the support of Ripple and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for our work on developing a new framework for high-performance, interoperable blockchains.”

UBRI#20: Duke University / Fuqua School of Business 

Nothing relevant and thus "on campus" candidate to check what's going on there...The only thing that I have to say is "Fuqua". Pronounce it as you wish.

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UBRI#21: University of Kansas , School of Engineering (Brad Garlinghouse favorite UBRI :-))

http://news.ku.edu/2019/02/07/tech-firm-ripple-supports-blockchain-research-ku-2m-gift

A $2 million gift, which will provide $400,000 a year for five years, will support research in the Information & Telecommunication Technology Center at the KU School of Engineering. KU will determine its own research topics and areas of focus. Ripple also will collaborate with students and faculty at KU by providing subject matter expertise and technical resources, as needed.

“It’s a win all around: Students can do research and get practical application experience in blockchain, which is valuable technology training that everyone, including Ripple, wants to see,

Ripple gift also will support the KU Blockchain Institute, a student-led organization that promotes the implications and applications of blockchain technology across the professional fields of engineering, business development and policymaking.

https://www.ripple.com/insights/on-campus-university-of-kansas-emphasizes-interdisciplinary-blockchain-study-for-budding-entrepreneurs/

Across multiple conversations with Professor Perry Alexander, we explored the university’s deployment of a XRP Ledger validator, its cybersecurity-related research into blockchain with the NSA, and unique interdisciplinary projects in biodiversity and visual arts—all as part of Alexander’s hope to create the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Professor Alexander fundamentally believes that the study of blockchain and other new technologies is the foundation to building the entrepreneurs and workforce of tomorrow. He observed that industries advance in new technologies as they hire workers that have studied these technologies more extensively and are more familiar with how to apply and manage them.

That’s why he believes ubiquitous commercial applications for blockchain are still a generation of startups away. Current and future students need time to explore and manipulate blockchain—especially in the context of interdisciplinary study—so they are better attuned to how they can more widely commercialize the technology.

He was adamant that while blockchain is a fascinating technology on its own, it requires people from across the vast spectrum of academia to make it effective. He pointed to his department’s own cybersecurity work as an example. It’s well known that one of the core security flaws in most systems is not technological but rather social in nature: consider the employee who misplaces a badge or password versus a deficiency in technology.

One of the reasons Professor Alexander is so excited about the prospects for UBRI and why it has gained momentum so quickly at KU is because the university was already engaged in blockchain projects. He pointed to the business school’s student-run Blockchain Initiative as an example. (https://kublockchain.com/)

Prior to the UBRI grant, Professor Alexander had also been working with his team to set up a XRP Ledger validator. As a NSA Lablet and research partner, his team wanted to set up the validator on campus to better understand the technology.

He was particularly excited about using blockchain in this context because of its potential to move the responsibility for cyber security from the state to the community. In his words: “That’s a big deal.”

As part of UBRI, KU intends to pursue more cybersecurity-related work with the NSA. If that happens, he envisions giving students and other faculty even more hands-on experience with the validator.

He believes that blockchain has a lot to offer when it comes to identity and network resiliency—both fundamental components of cybersecurity. Ultimately, he imagines blockchain being a critical part of aggregated trust approaches that can more effectively manage the enormous scope of devices involved in the Internet of Things.

Ripple and UBRI—he termed a “game changer” for KU. He hopes to use the grant to expose more students to the technology in novel ways.

He says students are the best tech transfer mechanism, and that providing them with these opportunities and interactions is the reason a university exists.

By showing them what blockchain makes possible, he hopes to influence the next generation to develop the next economy.

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UBRI#22: Morgan State University

https://news.morgan.edu/ripple-partnership/

The funds will underwrite a five-year academic partnership (https://www.morgan.edu/school_of_business_and_management/centers/fintech_center/about_us.html) bringing advanced education and research programs to the University. 

Through the efforts of the Center for the Study of Blockchain and FinTech Innovation (the Center) at Morgan’s Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management (https://www.morgan.edu/sbm), the University’s UBRI program will encompass the development of specialized curricula, expansion of academic courses, hosting of conferences and awarding of scholarships to faculty and students pursuing work in blockchain, cryptocurrency, digital payments and related topics. The Center will also serve as a funding hub for other Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) seeking to develop their own FinTech initiatives.

https://www.morgan.edu/fintechcenter

...research projects that address the complex problems of blockchain technology as well as the development of specialized curricula, expansion of academic courses, hosting of conferences and awarding of scholarships to faculty and students pursuing work in blockchain technology, crypto-assets, digital payments, and related topics. The Center offers its programs in research and education to multiple disciplines including business and entrepeneurship; computer science; economics; engineering; information systems; law; and others. The Ripple grant will underwrite a five-year academic partnership bringing advanced education and research programs to the University.

Team Ripple (Kahina van Dyke, short video, May 2019)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=JmTfkYcuUjk

https://www.morgan.edu/school_of_business_and_management/centers/fintech_center/research.html

UBRI is interested in the following research topics. (https://www.morgan.edu/Documents/ACADEMICS/SCHOOLS/SBM/FinTech Center/documents/UBRI Research Problems.pdf) 

This is not a comprehensive list. 

Click here for a list of Research and Course Development projects funded for the Spring of 2019. (https://www.morgan.edu/Documents/ACADEMICS/SCHOOLS/SBM/FinTech Center/List of projects funded-1.pdf)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!VERY INTERESTING, the WHOLE PDF GIVEN BELOW:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (https://www.morgan.edu/Documents/ACADEMICS/SCHOOLS/SBM/FinTech Center/documents/UBRI Research Problems.pdf) 

The research statements below are a representative sampling of real-world problems that are top of mind for Ripple and the ILP/XRP ledger teams, as well as for the broader community working in blockchain, cryptocurrency and global digital payments. This list of topics is not intended to be prescriptive, but can be used as a resource for universities as they develop their own research strategies within the framework of the University Blockchain Research Initiative and beyond. This list is preliminary; the intent is to use it as a working document that can be modified based on university partner feedback and the introduction of new topics, both by Ripple and by university faculty and students.

Consensus

• Can consensus protocols be built with block finality and asynchronous safety with littIe-0(N2)communication?
• What are possible attacks on Cobalt/ XRP LCP as described in respective papers? For example: frontrunning; What are possible mitigations?

Data Science

• How would you graph and analyze biockchain transactions using wallet identification, transaction clustering, etc.?

Decentralization

• What are useful ways to measure decentralization? What is the effective decentralization of the major assets in the digital space?
• Are there novel deanonymizing attacks on anonymity coins?

Digital Asset Derivatives

• Are there any novel derivative structures on digital assets that can leverage cryptography/multiparty agreement protocols?

Digital Asset Market Structure

• What are the best structures to incentivize price discovery and deep liquidity on distributed exchanges, where time-priority is poorly defined?
• What are ways of measuring the utility of digital assets in the market? How much should crypto-crypto trading volume be weighed compared with crypto-fiat volume? What are the best ways to measure the flow of fiat into and out of the digital asset ecosystem?
• What factors move or correlate with digital assets? Is the digital market a leading or trailing indicator for other asset classes?

Distributed Systems

• Are there novel attacks on various cryptocurrencies that are cheap but possibly not incentive compatible (i.e., if I'm willing to pay some cost to attack the network, how small would that cost be?)?
• Given XRP's consensus mechanism, what are the most efficient ways to scale the ledger?

Game Theory

• Are tokens isolated from fiat? Is there an incentive structure for cryptocurrencies that accounts for the fact that tokens aren't isolated from one another?

Incentive Structures

• Evaluate the incentives in emerging blockchain networks (proof of work, Byzantine fault tolerant (XRP),etc.) on a variety of factors including: Network diversity and participation, Security, consolidation of decision making, etc.

Infosec / Opsec

• What assumptions about the adversary are reasonable for blockchain consensus protocols (e.g., how important is safety/liveness under unbounded asynchrony? Is adaptive security really needed for PoS?)

Market Liquidity

• What is the price impact of an order/execution on open order books? How does this evolve as markets become more liquid?

Network Analyses- Non-Technical

• How do adoption curves take place globally (e.g. : December 2017 run-up in cryptocurrencies)? What adoption models make sense for the new digital asset class and where are we in terms of these models?
• How does Metcalfe¡¦s Law apply to global payment systems/networks? What is the strength of different digital asset ecosystems based on different network analyses?

Network Analyses- Technical

• Given the trajectory of the internet, what network topology should be expected for lnterledger connectors?
• What can be learned from TCP congestion and flow control strategies for interledger transport protocols like STREAM?
• What are the implications of sending data over the interledger as a replacement for the internet itself?
• Could internet SDN controllers be repurposed for interledger?
• Large scale testing of interledger: How does interledger perform in large scale distributed simulations?
• How can privacy be preserved while sending micropayments through interledger (e.g. lnterledger VPNsor TOR over ILP)?

Regulatory Impact on Digital Assets

• What is the overall regulatory landscape within the digital asset space and what is their impact on local/global perception of these new technologies?
• What are the potential downstream impacts (on banking, exchanges, payment companies, etc.) of different regulatory stances of major economies (India, Japan, Brazil, US, etc.)?

Software Engineering

• How would offline payments be implemented for interledger? (Similar to how credit cards do Offline payments)
• What architecture or tools (FPGAs) could be used to build super-fast interledger connectors?

 

 

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UBRI#23: Northeastern University

 https://www.northeastern.edu/ , can't give you anything else unfortunately...Maybe we'll find more what they plan to do here in one of the "on campus" posts from Ripple.

Let me know if you can find some more info about UBRI#23.

 

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UBRI#24: Tsinghua PBCSF, Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University (THUIFR), China

http://fintechlab.pbcsf.tsinghua.edu.cn/english/common/main/newsDetail?id=643 (January 2019)

Partnering with Ripple, Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University (THUIFR) recently launched Blockchain Technology Research Scholarship Program (BRSP) for excellent graduate students in China in 2019. Based on the research resources and achievements of THUIFR and supported by Ripple, BRSP will focus on international regulatory policies and the development of blockchain technology.

Students who are admitted to the program would be involved in cutting-edge research on global regulations and policies on blockchain technology, and would have opportunities to participate in corporate visits and events.

The program’s goal - to provide students with opportunities in blockchain research - closely aligns with that of Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative; we’re thrilled to support THUIFR in this endeavor and look forward to its launch.”

 

About THUIFR: Based on the academic and industrial research achievement accomplished by Fintech Lab since 2012, THUIFR is jointly established by PBC School of Finance, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, School of Software and Law School at Tsinghua University in 2017.

Aiming to provide world-class research and practical guidance for fintech industry, THUIFR is committed to becoming a leading platform for interdisciplinary research, policy advisory, exchange and cooperation, and innovative incubation to make contributions to build a healthy, stable and sustainable fintech ecosystem in China.

http://fintechlab.pbcsf.tsinghua.edu.cn/english/common/main/newsDetail?id=645 (March 2019)

Blockchain Technology Research Scholarship Program（BRSP） was successfully launched at Tsinghua PBCSF on March 9. Professors from THUIFR, and the Research Center for Blockchain, THUIFR gave those students who are successfully admitted into BRSP an overview of THUIFR, the Research Center of Blockchain, and the program, and mostly importantly, shared with them their research on blockchain technology.

Research Center for Blockchain conducts field research on global blockchain industry, with a focus on industry development, and works very closely with regulatory bodies and the industry.

Eric van Miltenburg from Ripple, the partner and sponsor of BRSP, said he was very excited to be here celebrating together with us about the official launch of BRSP. He mentioned THUIFR is the first academic entity in China to join UBRI.

Partnering with Ripple, THUIFR recently launched Blockchain Technology Research Scholarship Program (BRSP) for excellent graduate students in China earlier this year. Based on the research resources and achievements of THUIFR and supported by Ripple, BRSP is focusing on international regulatory policies and the development of blockchain technology.

 

I would encourage you to read the news from 2019 (http://fintechlab.pbcsf.tsinghua.edu.cn/english/common/main/news). There are some very interesting articles there (inter-banking, regulations) to see what they plan to do with this newly founded Blockchain Technology Research Scholarship Program. Also take a peak at http://fintechlab.pbcsf.tsinghua.edu.cn/english/common/main/research

 

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UBRI#25: University of Michigan

https://news.umich.edu/cryptocurrency-innovation-u-m-to-establish-fintech-collaboratory/

https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-establish-fintech-collaboratory-research-cryptocurrency

Financial technology research and education at the University of Michigan will get a boost with $1 million from Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative.

With the funds, U-M will establish the FinTech Collaboratory to build multidisciplinary curricula in the booming area, as well as engineering and business use cases for cryptocurrencies in new applications such as smart cities.

The FinTech Collaboratory will be an interdisciplinary forum that includes engineering, business, public policy and economics. The Ripple gift will be housed in the Center for Smart Infrastructure Finance. The collaboratory and the center are interdisciplinary initiatives among the College of Engineering, Ross School of Business, Ford School of Public Policy, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

“The most important thing this funding allows us to do is integrate the engineering and data science with finance and policy to craft financial models to fund infrastructure, developing models to close the infrastructure finance gap,” said Peter Adriaens, director of the Center for Smart Infrastructure Finance and professor of civil and environmental engineering and finance. “These solutions will democratize access to infrastructure and level the playing field between the rich and poor.”

The Center for Smart Infrastructure Finance aims to change the way infrastructure is funded by harnessing the value of the data infrastructure is capable of providing. It is advancing new business and investment models for efficient capital deployment toward smart and resilient infrastructure systems.

 

 

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UBRI#26: Univeristy of Sao Paolo (USP), Brasil

https://www.ripple.com/insights/featured/ripple-officially-launches-operations-in-brazil/

Ripple’s efforts in Brazil go beyond delivering software solutions to financial institutions. Consistent with its history as a mission-driven company, last year Ripple launched the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to support academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments.

Ripple committed resources to top tier Brazilian universities, including University of São Paulo and Fundação Getulio Vargas. The company is working with over fifteen professors at USP and FGV to help support academic research and technical development across disciplines including law, business and engineering.

“Ripple believes that academic institutions will play a key role driving the blockchain industry forward. USP and FGV are innovative, forward-thinking institutions that are investing in blockchain research to explore new use cases and help prepare students for future jobs in this space”

https://jornal.usp.br/institucional/usp-e-ripple-fazem-parceria-para-inovacao-em-blockchain/ (google translate suggested unless you know Portuguese)

The University will receive funding to promote research projects on blockchain technology concepts and applications and to develop training material, courses and events.

USP's Blockchain Research Initiative, supported by Ripple, brings together researchers from different fields of knowledge and research units, such as the Polytechnic School (Poli), the Faculty of Law (FD), the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting (FEA) and the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME), in addition to having the support of the Information Technology Superintendence (STI) ”, explains the advisor of the Dean of Research and one of the project coordinators at USP, Antonio Mauro Saraiva. “We are very excited to develop interdisciplinary studies and strengthen collaboration between these institutes through the UBRI partnership,” added Poli professor and also coordinator of the initiative, Marcos Antonio Simplício.

 

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UBRI#27: Georgetown university

Not much on https://www.georgetown.edu/ ... Moving on to #28. Again, if you have more info regarding this university, feel free to add it below.

 

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UBRI#28: National University of Singapore (NUS Computing)

https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/news/news-media/2888-2019-ripple-ubri/ 

https://www.cio.com/article/3340128/nus-joins-ripples-university-blockchain-research-initiative.html

Though many fintech hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia are located in the Asia Pacific region, our blockchain education initiatives and general curricula surrounding emerging technology tend to lag behind our neighbours of the West,” Associate Professor Keith B Carter of the NUS School of Computing told CIO Asia.

Aside from the NUS, other top-ranking institutions in the country, including Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University, have launched blockchain-related courses and certifications. To mitigate the country’s tech skills gap, continuing education centres such as NTUC LearningHub have followed suit, offering short-term classes and certifications catering to professionals looking to pivot their careers and enter the tech sector

NUS School of Computing is playing both a research and consultative role and actively invite innovative companies to look at new technologies, focusing specifically on how these technologies enable them to solve existing challenges while keeping cybersecurity implications in mind.

“Universities are home to knowledge and innovation, playing a pivotal role in shaping tomorrow’s workforce and are natural settings within which the boundaries of technology can be explored. By exposing students to blockchain in its early days better prepares them for a future where its use will be ubiquitous and as educators, we have the responsibility to encourage them to act with innovation and experimentation in mind,

Some of the initiatives taking place at NUS School of Computing include a student-led Fintech Society which allows undergraduate and postgraduate students and PhD candidates to get together and look at some of the challenges that companies are experiencing today and how technological innovations such as blockchain can help to solve them.

Though nascent, blockchain builds on existing areas of computer science and has been strengthened and developed in universities around the world. For the NUS School of Computing, this culminated in the Cryptocurrency, Strategy, Techniques, and Algorithms Centre (CRYSTAL Centre) while simultaneously supporting projects and protocols such as Zilliqa that have gone on to become some of the industry’s frontrunners.

https://blockchain.comp.nus.edu.sg/ and https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~dbsystem/paper.html (some of their research (papers) e.g. https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~hungdang/papers/sharding.pdf ...)

 

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UBRI#29: Stanford university 

https://cbr.stanford.edu/ and https://cbr.stanford.edu/research.html (e.g. The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP))

Stanford computer scientists have founded the Center for Blockchain Research, an initiative dedicated to researching and understanding a technology that promises to fundamentally change how people and companies make deals and complete financial transactions over the internet.

Led by Dan Boneh and David Mazières (kinda like Dave but then for Stellar) , both professors of computer science, the center’s inaugural faculty will also include Alex Aiken, David Dill, John Mitchell, Tim Roughgarden and law school faculty Joe Grundfest.

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/gsb/files/publication-pdf/study-blockchain-impact-moving-beyond-hype.pdf 

Study made in collaboration with RippleWorks (http://www.rippleworks.org/who-we-are/, I see Chris Larsen as a co-founder...)

They like to analyze securities (with fascination for XRP too so it seems) at Stanford Law : http://securities.stanford.edu/filings-documents/1066/RLI00_01/201861_f01c_18CV03286.pdf (stumbled upon this)

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/voices/susan-athey (just stumbled upon, worth reading)

Athey, a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, seeks to understand the impact of marketplaces and digital platforms on the economy, touching disparate fields such as timber auctions, virtual currencies, the news media, and online advertising. By marrying machine-learning techniques with statistical tools to analyze large and novel data sets, she helps answer thorny questions about cause and effect.

Researching and designing auction-based marketplaces has been a fixture throughout Athey’s career. She, for example, developed the auction-based pricing system that has been used to price most of the timber in British Columbia for more than a decade and that helped resolve a major trade dispute with the U.S. Athey developed a much broader insight from studying timber auctions: “The rules of the game have an obvious short-term effect on how prices get set and how business gets allocated,” Athey says. “But the impact of the market design on who participates is more important.” In other words, how does the design influence the overall mix of small and large bidders in an auction? Understanding that is more valuable than understanding how they behave once they get there, Athey says.

Athey serves on the board of a number of companies that operate in a wide range of industries, including travel (Expedia), finance (Ripple), and dog-sitting (Rover). What is it about those companies that piques her interest as an economist?

For Ripple — whose mission is to move money instantly, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, around the world — it’s the opportunity to address the frictions in global financial transactions. “Those frictions are basically a huge tax on the global economy, particularly for parts of the world that are not well-connected,” Athey says. “You have people working all week to remit money home, and then 20% of that money gets burned in the remittance process. Or people are trying to do business from Africa but can’t move money in less than 10 days or two weeks. It’s very regressive and very inefficient. So it’s exciting to be part of a company that has a real chance of making a dent in that problem.”

https://twitter.com/Susan_Athey/status/1099762139617669120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1099762139617669120&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoingape.com%2Fripple-lead-on-question-student-seeks-clarification-promoting-xrp-over-bitcoin%2F

Then a student complained and she responded (a soap opera that I somehow missed at the time...). As you can see I have big expectations for Stanford...

 

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UBRI#30: Kyoto University

https://www.ripple.com/insights/ripple-expands-ubri-program-to-japan/

Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability is hosting workshops and funding research projects based on interdisciplinary approach — including engineering, business and public policy — in order to address global issues. Currently, several graduate students are researching the application of blockchain technology to remittance by migrant workers, digital identity management for refugees and supply chain management for Kyoto’s traditional industry. 

As the industry matures, the academic community plays a pivotal in paving the road for innovative companies and entrepreneurs leveraging blockchain technologies and digital assets,” said Eric van Miltenburg, SVP of Global Operations at Ripple. “Expanding the UBRI network across the global to wide range of university partners will only continue to promote and accelerate the development of blockchain technology and use cases.”

 

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UBRI#31:  The University of Tokyo

https://www.ripple.com/insights/ripple-expands-ubri-program-to-japan/

The University of Tokyo’s Department of Economics is arranging open seminars related to blockchain and settlement for the public. In addition, professors within the department are conducting research projects on related topics such as the evolving financial system and frameworks on regulation and supervision of the financial industry’s utilization of crypto assets and blockchains. As part of its commitment to nurturing the future generation of innovators, the University of Tokyo will also award scholarships to students involved in the research.

These programs, driven by the university partners, are poised to prepare the next generation of engineers, business leaders, entrepreneurs and other professionals to apply these technologies in practice.  As globalization increases, so does the demand for technological solutions and talent to solve the world’s hardest financial problems, especially in core focus regions like Japan. 

Japan is quickly becoming a leading force in crypto assets and blockchain. The region has always been forward thinking and exploring ways to improve the current financial system.

 

Ripple Insights:

https://www.ripple.com/insights/ripple-introduces-the-university-blockchain-research-initiative/

https://www.ripple.com/insights/university-blockchain-research-initiative-expands-global-footprint-with-11-new-partners/

https://www.ripple.com/insights/ripple-expands-ubri-program-to-japan/

https://www.ripple.com/?s=campus

https://www.ripple.com/?s=ubri

 

 

According to Ripple this global initiative now supports 33 university partners. I only found 31 partners. Feel free to add your own material below.

 

Edited August 8, 2019 by Guest
adding extra content

[WuWei]

1 hour ago, crypto_deus said:

All right folks, let's dive into #UBRI initiative and see what is it all about. I see a lot of ******** and idiotic comments passing by about this UBRI initative. Let's see what kind of jobs are going to be created. I'm going to expand this topic as I go (I just started to look into this out of curiosity)...

UBRI-numbering given below starts from the top-left corner and ends at the bottom-right corner following Ripple's academic partners shown at https://ubri.ripple.com/

UBRI#1: Australian National University (ANU) College of Law

https://law.anu.edu.au/news-and-events/news/anu-receives-us1m-study-blockchain-and-law-technology

The Australian National University has become the first in the country to secure US$1 million to research and create courses around the legal implications for the law profession and governments from the emerging technologies of blockchain, smart contracts, and digital payments.

Scott Chamberlain (https://twitter.com/scotty2ten and https://twitter.com/morley_alana/status/1098807708533178368), a Senior Lecturer in the ANU College of Law, has received the funds from US-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Ripple, as part of its US$50m University Blockchain Research Initiative.

“The internet has exploded the amount of interactions and information we can share with other people, but it didn’t explode trust,” Mr Chamberlain says. “That leads to all sorts of things like online identify theft and intellectual property infringements. “Part of what Ripple’s looking at is can blockchain add a value layer to that, so the Internet of Data matches with the Internet of Value. “We’re proud to be both the first Law faculty and the first Australian university involved in this exciting research initiative,”. “The legal implications for these emerging technologies are immense, and we are thrilled that our staff and students will be in the front row of researching what it all means for the legal profession and governments.” Mr Chamberlain and his research partners, starting with software developers, will study whether emerging financial technologies can help.

“I’m looking at what I call the ‘Lex Automagica Tech Stack’ – blockchain, plus digital assets, plus smart contracts, plus AI (Artificial Intelligence), plus AR and VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – that can power our societies like clockwork.”

“There’s a whole lot of things that need research, it’s not just blockchain but legal tech in general. The whole space is a Cambrian explosion of new and wonderful things to sink your teeth into.”

Mr Chamberlain plans to create two postgraduate Masters courses in first semester 2020, subject to approvals, that examine the technology proposals in theory and practice.

 

UBRI#2: Delft University of Technology

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/delft-blockchain-lab/vacancies/vacancy/

By the way, you can still apply for these jobs!

PhD Design and Implement Security Protocols for Blockchains

Department/faculty: Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Level: University Graduate

Working hours: 38-40 hours weekly

Contract: 4 Years

Salary: 2222 - 2840 euros monthly (full-time basis)

Goals of this collaboration are to design and implement security protocols for blockchains as well as developing effective and efficient solutions for testing and verification. In the first phase of the collaboration, we are hiring two Ph.D. students, who will be daily supervised by experts in both Software Engineering and Distributed Systems.

The two PhD positions will focus on the following research areas:

1. AI-based Software Testing.

The development, maintenance, and testing of blockchains involve many activities that are complex, expensive and error-prone. In this project, we aim to automate testing activities by leveraging artificial intelligence algorithms (e.g., by using search-based and machine learning algorithms). The goal is, for example, to assess the implementation of the consensus algorithms or testing blockchain applications against security attacks (e.g., double-spending attacks).

Background: Software Testing, Optimization Search Algorithms, Blockchain (optional)

Supervisors: Annibale Panichella, Arie van Deursen

More information: apanichella.github.io, se.ewi.tudelft.nl/sbse.html 

2. Real-World Blockchain Scalability and Security.

Theoretical models and actual networks differ in a number of points. In this project, we aim to measure Ripple how is used in the wild. Based on these results, we want to develop more suitable algorithms. Potential examples include improved consensus algorithms, improved scalability, and designing privacy-preserving protocols.

Background: Distributed Systems, Network Security, Blockchain

Supervisors: Stefanie Roos, **** Epema

More information: www.tudelft.nl/delft-blockchain-lab ,https://ds..ewi.tudelft.nl/

While the two PhD positions focus on two different areas, the candidates will collaborate closely. Besides, we expect the candidates to spend some time working at Ripple offices for deploying the developed solutions.

Requirements

- An excellent master's degree (or equivalent) in computer science, with a strong interest in at least one of the following ares: Software Testing, Distributed Systems, Network Security, Optimization and Artificial Intelligence. Experience with Blockchain is not mandatory but it is highly beneficial

- Strong programming skills are required, preferably in C and/or C++

 

UBRI#3: Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV)

https://portal.fgv.br/en

https://www.ripple.com/insights/on-campus-fundacao-getulio-vargas-is-training-brazils-next-gen-workforce-on-blockchain/

One of the most tangible effects of UBRI at FGV was a new Master’s Degree in Crypto Finance that Professor Rochman helped launch in 2017. The program is the first of its kind in Brazil. It emphasizes economics and finance and revolves around the core disciplines of math and statistics. It began with courses on pricing assets and derivatives and computer skills and has since expanded to include courses on crypto finance and crypto economics.

These newer courses cover blockchain structures, consensus, and both micro-and-macro-economics in relation to these new technologies. The crypto finance course is specific to cryptocurrencies and delves into how crypto is viewed by other industries, alt-coins, and even how to build a new cryptocurrency.

The program also features a course on cyber security. Professor Rochman says students in the course can learn about cryptographic security, various algorithms related to security, and how changes can impact end users or investors. Interestingly, he mentioned this course deals with physical security as well. For example, where to place computers, how to build and secure a data room, and other real-world challenges.

Students taking part in all these courses have access to a crypto finance lab where they program with bitcoin and use both bitcoin script language and python. They can also take electives that allow them to specialize in crypto subjects related to data science, AI, Internet of Things, and other similar economics or business topics. The goal being to foster an understanding of and interest in the application of blockchain and crypto to adjacent industries.

 

 

UBRI#4: BerkleyHaas

https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/news-release/the-haas-school-of-business-at-the-university-of-california-berkeley-partners-with-ripple-to-accelerate-innovation-in-blockchain-cryptocurrency/

Berkeley Haas will receive a multi-year, multi-million-dollar gift from Ripple to build on the school’s leadership in advancing understanding of how these technologies are transforming multiple industries, and in educating leaders who will bring them to market. The school will develop a comprehensive program focused on blockchain and distributed systems, as well as cryptocurrency and digital payments.

Eric van Miltenburg, Ripple’s senior vice president of Global Operations, said the initiative will help meet the growing demand for talent, learning, research, and project-based experience in blockchain and fintech more broadly.

“Academia has traditionally been a critical driver of technical innovation. The University Blockchain Research Initiative is an acknowledgment of the vital importance of the unique role universities will play in advancing our understanding and application of cryptography and blockchain technology.  It also speaks to the reality that university graduates will fuel a continually evolving and maturing financial marketplace and workforce,”

https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/blockchain-in-bloom-new-initiative-expands-courses-research-grants/

Bosun Adebaki, MBA 19, will spend time this spring researching the merits of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), a form of digital money that’s being tested by governments and central banks worldwide. His goal is to determine how central banks can use digital currencies to become more competitive, flexible, and efficient.

Adebaki, a fellow with the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator (https://xcelerator.berkeley.edu/ and https://blockchain.berkeley.edu/), is among eight graduate students and seven faculty members from across UC Berkeley who received the first round of grants from the Berkeley Haas Blockchain Initiative, a new program funded by a grant from blockchain industry leader Ripple.

“It’s exciting to watch the Ripple UBRI Partnership gather momentum at Haas and across the Berkeley campus,” said Prof. Laura Tyson, faculty director of IBSI and former dean of the Haas School. “Individual companies and researchers can only accomplish so much. But by supporting a research network that spans across so many great universities and over five continents, Ripple is building a powerful program that could lead to important advances for not only the entire sector, but for the world.”

Fifteen research grants awarded

The first round of grants went to professors from Berkeley Engineering, the School of Information, and Haas, as well researchers from the Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity and the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. Haas Prof. Paul Gertler received funding for research focused on adoption of digital payment systems by small businesses in emerging markets, and Asst. Prof. Giovanni Compiani received a grant to study what drives demand for cryptocurrencies among both individual and institutional investors. Blockchain courses taught by Adam Sterling, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, and Ikhlaq Sidhu, chief scientist and faculty director of the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, also received grants.

Eight students from Berkeley Law, Berkeley Engineering, the School of Information, the Department of Economics, and Haas each received smaller grants that will allow them to complete research projects within a semester.

Haas students participating, in addition to Adebaki, include Kate Tomlinson, MBA 20, and a business consultant for Blockchain@Berkeley, who will be researching applications of blockchain within the energy sector. Her project will dive deeper into the specific challenges of financial reconciliation, hardware integration, and data sharing as they apply to the energy sector. Lauren Fu, MBA 19, will research ways to assign vehicle accident liability by collecting and storing accident data using blockchain—so that the data collected will be auditable and tamper-free.

She256, co-founded by Sara Reynolds, BS EECS 21 and a Blockchain@Berkeley consultant, also received a grant to continue to develop the reach of the organization, a movement to increase diversity and break down barriers to entry in the blockchain space.

 

 

UBRI#5: University of Waterloo

https://uwaterloo.ca/blockchain-research/news/new-funding-available-grad-students-researching-blockchain

To help shape the future of blockchain technologies, a funding opportunity is available for master’s and doctoral candidates.

Waterloo Engineering is offering fellowships, valued at up to $50,000 for master’s and $120,000 for PhD students, to undertake research in the blockchain field.

Most of the funding for the fellowships is provided by Ripple, a San Francisco-based technology company that specializes in digital payments and blockchain.

Recipients of the fellowships will join Waterloo researchers and others to advance research and innovation in blockchain, cryptography and digital payment systems.

https://uwaterloo.ca/blockchain-research/researchers-and-areas-expertise

a wide spectrum of research in the following areas:

• Applications in Severless Cloud Computing
• Blockchain for Social Good
• Consensus Protocols
• Cryptography and Security
• Data Mining and Machine Learning
• Distributed Systems
• Scalability
• Smart Contracts
• Testing and Verification

https://uwaterloo.ca/graduate-studies-postdoctoral-affairs/awards/ripple-graduate-fellows

The deadline to apply for a blockchain fellowship is February 1, 2019, with an anticipated start date of September 2019.

Annual fellowships valued at $25,000 per year (for Master's students) and $30,000 per year (for Doctoral students) will be awarded to eligible graduate students registered full time in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Fellowships will be awarded on the basis of academic excellence (e.g., minimum of 80% cumulative average or in each of the last two full-time academic years) and through demonstrated interest in how the applicant has increased diversity in the subject area and related field of Blockchain and distributed systems, Cryptocurrency and digital payments, and Cryptography, particularly as it relates to these research areas. Preference will be given to female graduate students who meet the evaluation criteria and students with diverse experiences and backgrounds.

 

UBRI#6: University of Oregon

https://business.uoregon.edu/news/leading-the-blockchain-revolution

Formed in April 2018, Oregon Blockchain (https://www.oregonblockchaingroup.com/) is a student-run initiative with a goal of campus wide reach for education and innovation in the blockchain space. The group hopes to recruit students from across different disciplines to think about how blockchain will impact business and have a greater understanding of blockchain generally.

In June, the University of Oregon announced it is one of 17 universities worldwide in the University Blockchain Research Initiative (https://around.uoregon.edu/content/ripple-partnership-puts-uo-elite-company-blockchain-research)—a multiyear, multi million-dollar program founded by Ripple to support academic research, technical development, and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments. Oregon Blockchain benefits from this gift through conference and curriculum rollout support.

Oregon Blockchain believes blockchain’s impact will be felt in six core areas: supply chain; financial markets; government; luxury assets, including sculptures, real estate, and collectible cars; advertising and journalism; and healthcare.

UO faculty members will develop curriculum and guide research, while Ripple will lend the support of its staff as well as technical resources to the UO and its other partner schools.

Ripple will also provide funds to support cybersecurity research for which faculty members from across campus can compete. Sventek can see natural collaborations between the new program and faculty in the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business and the School of Journalism and Communication, for example.

The technology essentially tracks the virtual fingerprint of everyone who touches a specific item, when that occurred and any actions they may have taken with it. This includes everything from transferring funds between two parties to complete the purchase of goods to tracking the path a box of tomatoes takes from a farmer’s field to your neighborhood grocery store.

“It may have come about because of bitcoin, but blockchain is becoming a very important technology not just for the financial industry but also as a way to track the movement of goods from one supplier to another,” Sventek said. “It’s a way to keep a supply chain secure through an entire distribution network.”

The new hire will be a member of the Center for Cyber Security and Privacy, the UO’s lauded interdisciplinary unit that is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. Sventek expects to launch the hiring process in the coming weeks.

 

To be continued...I just started (first top row is done, holy **** it's a lot of work... :))

 

Wow, impressive work, Thank You!  Just your initial efforts on this quickly demonstrates how significant these research projects have the potential to become, and how varied they are. This is again, is a stroke of genius on Ripple's part, that will pay dividends in the long run that are almost unimaginable.

[Guest]

Thanks, I fully agree. That's what some XRP HODLers fail to understand i.e. Ripple (the company) doesn't need to invest in just the XRP ecosystem. It's also fine to invest, from time to time, in some other interesting "by-products" and the "blockchain space" as a whole even though it doesn't have anything to do with the XRP ledger at first sight. This will be hugely beneficial for the XRP HODLers in the long run.

Not to mention that Ripple will buy all these potential spin-offs later on as part of their master plan for global dominance (muahahahaha, evil laugh mode ON :-))...

[Hodor]

5 hours ago, crypto_deus said:

To be continued...I just started (first top row is done, holy **** it's a lot of work... :))

Fantastic work @crypto_deus!  I like how you are breathing life into each of these initiatives in a way that helps people to relate to the curriculum. 

Note:  @scotty2ten is an active member of the XRP Community & has also, at times, made his viewpoints on legal matters known publicly.  For example, he analyzed the 'XRP / Security' topic and sent out a great multi-tweet on it.  Here's one thread from him:

https://twitter.com/scotty2ten/status/982588943806881792

[Flintstone]

Nice work!!

Please, nobody else quote the OP. My poor thumb! 😂 @WuWei

[Zerponaut]

Excellent work thank you.

I don't see BTC, ETH or anyone else doing anything within light years of this initiative. Ripple must be gaining the most brilliant insights into the future of blockchain from this - I think they're setting themselves up to be THE leader of the industry well into the future.

[panmores]

18 hours ago, crypto_deus said:

All right folks, let's dive into #UBRI initiative and see what is it all about. I see a lot of ******** and idiotic comments passing by about this UBRI initative. Let's see what kind of jobs are going to be created. I'm going to expand this topic as I go (I just started to look into this out of curiosity)...

 

Excellent stuff, excellent research, thanks much for this confidence booster!

[Guest]

UBRI8-13 added, I'll try to keep this pace of adding approx. 6 UBRI projects per day hoping to finish by the end of the week (dammit, what crazy research did I start :-))... Thanks for the encouragements because this is definitely taking longer than anticipated but it's well worth it and I want to do it thoroughly otherwise what's the bloody point...  The more I read about this URBI intitative the more zerps I accumulate on a daily basis. :-)

From the above-mentioned, I can only conclude that Ripple is really engaged in this whole project. Team Ripple is traveling and helping and I can only assume that some university (PhD) students/professors will go to Ripple HQ as well. To get more involved and have more interaction. I read that a lot of university people are focusing on REAL USE CASES (almost like Brad is whispering this directly into their ears ) which makes me even more positive.

All in all, this URBI thing is awesome! And, it's clearly a long term project. It was announced in summer 2018, some universities started to get engaged already in fall 2018. Most of them started to hire people in 2019 and the new courses will start in 2019-2020. Basically, we just started but the future is bright #XRPCommunity.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Guest
typos

[Guest]

20 hours ago, Flintstone said:

Nice work!!

Please, nobody else quote the OP. My poor thumb! 😂 @WuWei

I second this!

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Zerpaholic said:

Excellent work thank you.

I don't see BTC, ETH or anyone else doing anything within light years of this initiative. Ripple must be gaining the most brilliant insights into the future of blockchain from this - I think they're setting themselves up to be THE leader of the industry well into the future.

THIS!

[Guest]

9 more added, UBRI#14 is my favorite so far (micropayments...). And check out #22 as well (at the end).

Edited August 6, 2019 by Guest
extra info

[mm421wsp]

Wow...just wow, color me extremely impressed.  Just don't tell the debbie downers in the zerpbox, i'd hate for them to pull a facial muscle smiling.

[Guest]

UBRI 23-28 added, a few more and we'll have a complete overview soon. Feel free to add missing information that I could not find. 

[Guest]

For now, the Ubri topic has now been finalized but this is an evolving field so updates will be posted from time to time. Please add your own findings and if you are by any chance working on these UBRI projects at one of these universities then definitely keep us up to date!